Streamlining sustainability reporting for a leading mining corporation
A large mining corporation is among the leading producers of lithium carbonate and other minerals worldwide. Headquartered in Chile, the company is involved in strategically important industries for the country, including those related to health, food, technology and clean energies. It has a presence in over 100 countries and has commercial offices in more than 20.
With business lines including plant-based nutrition, lithium, iodine and derivatives, potassium and industrial chemicals, the company has made significant commitments to sustainability around an approach focused on human progress and environmental action. Committed to the principles of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to carbon neutrality in all products by 2040, the client has pledged to contribute to developing solutions that improve the quality of life for people across the planet.
Business Needs
As part of its sustainability commitments, the company is required to measure a host of metrics to ensure they are reaching their goals. To be successful in that regard, the challenge was to implement a well-structured sustainability program sustained by a solid technology platform.
The client had long been collecting data using a variety of legacy systems without any common interface, while data entry was still undertaken manually for the various metrics being evaluated. Furthermore, the data came from a number of different sources, with no overall visibility of the complete picture.
This was an untenable position for such an important metric; studies claim up to 70% of a business’s EBITDA may be at risk because of challenges related to sustainability. This meant the client had a strong imperative to update processes and find a better way to measure their KPIs.
Outcomes
- Streamline the collection, management and processing of sustainability data
- Create projections based on current established metrics
- Set targets that align with the commitment to sustainability performance potential
The challenge was to implement a well-structured sustainability program sustained by a solid technology platform.
Solution
NTT DATA proposed a proof of concept using SAP Sustainability Control Tower that would monitor metrics for four key areas:
- Governance
- Environment
- Social
- Economics
Proof of concept transforms business
Having acknowledged the importance of sustainability to its long-term value, the client was keen to develop a proof of concept using SAP Sustainability Control Tower (SCT). NTT DATA’s proposal initially involved understanding the potential of this what is still a relatively new SAP solution. In conjunction with the client, decisions were made about which of the 39 default metrics offered by SCT would then be implemented.
The proof of concept helped the client make significant progress in the measurement and analysis of their objectives. First and foremost, the applied integrations represent a step forward in streamlining the collection, management and processing of the sustainability data that’s so critical to their business model.
Gathering the right data
A tool first had to be configured that could gather data against all of the metrics that were relevant to the client, managing that data and presenting it in a single user interface. Once the appropriate metrics had been selected, the information was loaded into the system according to the structure established by the tool, before appropriate data mosaics were activated to permit user queries and visualization. A roadmap was drawn up to understand and direct the longer-term goals of this PoC and establish prioritization moving forward.
The proof of concept developed by NTT DATA was implemented using the following architecture:
- SAP BTP
- SAP Sustainability Control Tower
- CSV files
- SAP Cloud Platform Extension
As SAP SCT runs on Fiori, a user-friendly interface would now be possible that provided a single source for queries against any metric, from any device.
Pioneering new tools for a new tomorrow
Implementation of the proposed architecture would see the client become a pioneer in the use of these kinds of tools in their country, benefitting from one of the latest solutions launched by SAP in order to both gather and evaluate sustainability data in a far more efficient manner.
The ability to track crucial KPIs in this regard aligns both with their own corporate objectives, and their commercial, legal and social governance obligations.
About this case study
One of the world’s leading producers of lithium carbonate and other minerals, a Chile-based mining firm required improved sustainability reporting capabilities.